So unless you live under a rock, you know that the curiosity rover is set to land on Mars within 4 and a half hours. Once there, it may provide us with evidence of life on the red planet, and even open the possibility for us to begin terraforming it.

Kick-ass 3D sim of the landing right here

It'll definitely be interesting to see what happens, pretty excited to find out. Not sure if im going to go to my local observatory tonight or not though...

If civilians can join an operation to terraform Mars, then as soon as i'm whatever age they require ima be on that shit. Not even kidding, i'm not even mildly interested in space but actually preparing and colonizing another planet sounds like a dream to me. Like, a peaceful chaos kind of thing.

I bet Mars looks like this.

It will be neato to see whats going on in mars and what happens.

At 8/5/12 08:42 PM, CocoaBeanie wrote: This 3D Simulator is really neat. I see no point in searching for life, because theres no little green men out there on mars...

They aren't talking about green men you fuckwit, they're talking about tiny bacteria and signs of water and other such signs of Mars being easy to terraform. Idgit.

Why arent we sending manned ships to mars goddamnit?
I want to be all like in 1969 'n shit, people on the moon and whatevers

At 8/5/12 08:39 PM, TB1ZZL3 wrote: So unless you live under a rock, you know that the curiosity rover is set to land on Mars within 4 and a half hours.

I don't live under a rock, and I haven't heard about this. I just don't watch the news or read the papers.

Maybe I haven't heard about this because I'm living in one of Osama's old cave hideouts right now, tryin to beat the heat.

So we spent billions of dollars on this mars rover just because?
Clearly we're doing all we can to end this economic crisis.

I have a feeling it will end badly.....

At 8/5/12 10:06 PM, POTaTOS wrote: So we spent billions of dollars on this mars rover just because?
Clearly we're doing all we can to end this economic crisis.

Compared to the $523 Billion that was spent on Medicare and $683.7 Billion in Defense spending in 2010, it's pocket change.

Back on topic, I'm pretty excited about it. I'm more wanted to see if actually survives landing and if they discover water with some ancient life in it. The last stage with the sky crane seems tricky to me with a lot of things that could go wrong there.

im going to party on mars

Final approach. Hold on to your butts.

At 8/5/12 08:53 PM, kisame wrote: They aren't talking about green men you fuckwit, they're talking about tiny bacteria and signs of water and other such signs of Mars being easy to terraform. Idgit.

It was a joke, you twat.

At 8/5/12 10:50 PM, reverend wrote:

At 8/5/12 10:06 PM, POTaTOS wrote: So we spent billions of dollars on this mars rover just because?
Clearly we're doing all we can to end this economic crisis.

Compared to the $523 Billion that was spent on Medicare and $683.7 Billion in Defense spending in 2010, it's pocket change.

not to mention that NASA's budget for this program is really only about $580 million. it's gonna be in the vicinity of $350 million in 2013 and even lower by 2015. NASA got the short end of the stick financially for this fiscal year. Which is why we desperately need this to be successful, so we can pull more moneys from congress for bigger and better things in the future.

it starts at 1 am right?

I really can't wait. If we can live on mars, I'd go live there. My family wouldn't though, because of my religion. But whatevs, living on other planets is way cooler.

At 8/5/12 08:52 PM, Darthdenim wrote: I bet Mars looks like this.

Then we shouldn't go to mars, because there'll be nothing but misery if it's the Bradbury version.

At 8/6/12 12:50 AM, majormelthesackboy wrote: it starts at 1 am right?

I really can't wait. If we can live on mars, I'd go live there. My family wouldn't though, because of my religion. But whatevs, living on other planets is way cooler.

it's a huge relief that we'll actually be leaving some religions behind someday when we reach the age of space travel.
also, OP posted a simulator that allows you to see it all in real time. better hurry and get on that, there's only 20 minutes left until cruise stage separation.

In case you guys are interested. You watch the live feed (Live being a relative term since it takes 14 minutes for light to travel from Mars to Earth). http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/mars/curiosity_news3.html

At 8/6/12 12:54 AM, Cool-Points wrote: it's a huge relief that we'll actually be leaving some religions behind someday when we reach the age of space travel.
also, OP posted a simulator that allows you to see it all in real time. better hurry and get on that, there's only 20 minutes left until cruise stage separation.

That doesn't mean it'll be over soon?!??!?!

At 8/6/12 01:02 AM, majormelthesackboy wrote:

That doesn't mean it'll be over soon?!??!?!

It begins its descent in 10 minutes. It will touch down at 1:31am

To my grandkids: I was here and watched it in real time.

At 8/6/12 01:04 AM, ZJ wrote: To my grandkids: I was here and watched it in real time.

..you're gonna show your grandkids newgrounds?

At 8/6/12 01:04 AM, EKublai wrote:

At 8/6/12 01:02 AM, majormelthesackboy wrote:

That doesn't mean it'll be over soon?!??!?!

It begins its descent in 10 minutes. It will touch down at 1:31am

Ah, got it. I'm really pumped this though. It's gonna be awesome.

At 8/6/12 01:04 AM, ZJ wrote: To my grandkids: I was here and watched it in real time.

Life on Mars is more likely than you having kids.

The MarsCuriosity twitter acount (wtflol) made a nice little reference to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

5 minutes till entry!!!

Watching the Ustream on my laptop and the NASA Roku app on my tv.

HERE WE GOOOO

USA USA USA

4 minutes!